Monitoring immune responsiveness to cancer vaccination

Abstract

The invention is direct to a method for determining a cancer patient's immune responsiveness to anti-cancer vaccination. In one aspect, for each of a plurality of vaccinations, pairs of clonotype profiles are obtained, one immediately prior to vaccination and one during the period of peak immune response, usually within two to twenty days after the vaccination. Responsiveness is correlated to successive increases in identical clonotypes within each pair of clonotype profiles in at least two successive vaccinations.

Description

[0001]This application claims priority under U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61 / 606,653 filed 5 Mar. 2012, which application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Cancer immunotherapy has been an attractive and difficult field. Evidence of immunosurveillance and immuno editing of cancerous cells suggests that efficient and effective cancer therapies may be attainable by informed manipulation of the immune system, e.g. Schreiber et al, Science, 331: 1565-1570 (2011); Brody et al, J. Clin. Oncol., 29: 1864-1875 (2011); Klebanoff et al, Immunological Reviews, 239: 27-44 (2011). Results of such approaches to date have been inconclusive, but tantalizing, which is due in part to the complexity and still limited understanding of many features of cancer and the immune system, including such features as exhaustion of tumor-reactive T cell populations, immunosuppression by regulatory T cells in tumors, mutability of tumor antigens, a...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention is a method for measuring how well a patient's body is responding to a cancer vaccination. The method involves analyzing the patient's immune system by comparing the genetic material of cells taken from the patient before and after the vaccination. The method can be used in various ways and may involve analyzing different types of genetic material. The technical effect of the invention is to provide a more reliable and accurate way to measure the effectiveness of cancer vaccination.

Problems solved by technology

Cancer immunotherapy has been an attractive and difficult field.

Results of such approaches to date have been inconclusive, but tantalizing, which is due in part to the complexity and still limited understanding of many features of cancer and the immune system, including such features as exhaustion of tumor-reactive T cell populations, immunosuppression by regulatory T cells in tumors, mutability of tumor antigens, and the like, e.g. Turcotte et al, Adv. Surg. 45: 341-360 (2011).

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